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Sunday in the Octave of Christmas
HOLY FAMILY
First Reading Eph 5:25-27; Gal 1:4
Second Reading From a Sermon by Cardinal
John Newman (Plain and Parochial Sermons V. 93-95.)
Jesus came not to borrow from the world, but to import to
it.
({93}...And when He ...).
When the Son of
God came into the world, He was a pattern
of sanctity in the circumstances of his life, as well as in His birth. He did
not implicate and contaminate Himself with sinners. He came down from heaven,
and made a short work in righteousness, and then returned back again where He
was before. He came into the world, and He speedily left the world; as if to
teach us how little He Himself, how little we His followers, have to do with
the world. He, the Eternal Ever-living Word of God, did not outlive
Methuselah's years, nay, did not even exhaust the {94} common age of man; but He came and He went, before men knew
that He had come, like the lightning shining from one side of heaven unto the
other, as being the beginning of a new and invisible creation, and having no
part in the old Adam. He was in the world, but not of the world; and while He
was here, He, the Son of man, was still in heaven: and as well might fire feed
upon water, or the wind be subjected to man's bidding, as the Only-begotten Son
really be portion and member of that perishable system in which He condescended
to move. He could not rest or tarry upon earth; He did but do His work in it;
He could but come and go.
And while He was here, since He
could not acquiesce or pleasure Himself in the earth, so He would none of its
vaunted goods. When He humbled himself unto His own sinful creation, He would
not let that creation minister to Him of its best, as if disdaining to receive
offering or tribute from a fallen world. It is only nature regenerate which may
venture to serve the Holy One. He would not accept lodging or entertainment,
acknowledgement, or blandishment, from the kingdom of darkness. He would not be
made a king; He would not be called, Good Master; He would not accept where He
might lay His head. His life lay not in man's breath, or man's smile; it was
hid in Him from whom He came and to whom He returned.
"The Light shineth in
darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." He seemed like other men
to the multitude. Though conceived of the Holy Ghost, He was born of a poor
woman, who, when guests were {95}
numerous, was thrust aside, and gave birth to Him in a place for cattle. O
wondrous mystery, early manifested, that even in birth He refused the world's
welcome! He grew up as the carpenter's son, without education, so that when He
began to teach, His neighbours wondered how one who had not learned letters,
and was bred to a humble craft, should become a prophet. He was known as the
kinsman and intimate of humble persons; so that the world pointed to them when
He declared Himself, as if their insufficiency was the refutation of His
claims. He was brought up in a town of low repute, so that even the better sort
doubted whether good could come out of it. No; He would not be indebted to this
world for comfort, aid, or credit; for "the world was made by Him, and the
world knew Him not." He came to it as a benefactor, not as a guest; not to
borrow from it, but to impart to it.
And when He grew up, and began to
preach the kingdom of heaven, the Holy Jesus took no more from the world then
than before. He chose the portion of those Saints who preceded and prefigured
Him, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, and His forerunner John the Baptist. He
lived at large, without the ties of home or peaceful dwelling; He lived as a
pilgrim in the land of promise; He lived in the wilderness. Abraham had lived
in tents in the country which his descendants were to enjoy. David had wandered
for seven years up and down the same during Saul's persecutions. Moses had been
a prisoner in the howling wilderness, all the way from Mount Sinai to the
borders of Canaan. Elijah wandered back again from Carmel {96} to Sinai. And the Baptist had remained in the desert from his
youth. Such in like manner was our Lord's manner of life, during His ministry:
He was now in Galilee, now in Judæa; He is found in the mountain, in the
wilderness, and in the city; but He vouchsafed to take no home, not even His
Almighty Father's Temple at Jerusalem.
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| Works of John Henry Newman |  |
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